Incarnation & Atonement: A Reflection

Where do we even begin when reflecting on the deep mystery of the Incarnation and our atonement? Given the paradoxical nature of our central Christian confession, it is difficult to discern a distinctive starting point for this reflection. As Christians we do not begin with anthropology, hamartiology, theodicy, or even history instead we begin and end with Christology because it is through Christ that we understand God, creation, humanity, sin, and redemption. However, to give a sense of coherence to our reflection we must maintain continuity with our narrative which begins in the beginning. Berashieth barah Elohim et ha-shamaim va-et ha-eretz. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1.1) En arche en ho Logos, kai ho Logos en pros ton Theon, kai Theos en ho Logos. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” (John 1.1)

This paradoxical point is precisely where St. Athanasius begins his reflection and articulation on the Incarnation. In De Incarnatione he says, “We will begin, then, with the creation of the world and with God its Maker, for the fact that you must grasp is this: the renewal of creation has been wrought by the Self-same Word Who made it in the beginning.” Therefore, the starting point for us as Christians is the identity of Jesus, for He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (1 Corinthians 1.15-20)

We begin with the confession, ‘Jesus Christ is Lord!’ Yet, we also move in the order of our narrative knowing that He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End of all things.

Even if we attempt to be Christocentric in our reflection, we still must wrestle with the mystery of our Christological language. Do we begin with a Christology from above? In this sense, does the climax of Heilsgeschichte come in the incarnation, ‘the word became flesh and dwelt among us,’ as the East tends to emphasize? Or, is the cross and resurrection the central act in God’s revealing and reconciling work? As James Denney says,

It is not in His being here, but in His being here as a propitiation for the sins of the world, that the love of God is revealed. Not Bethlehem, but Calvary, is the focus of revelation, and any construction of Christianity which ignores or denies this distorts Christianity by putting it out of focus.

Yet, the Eastern Fathers tend to give more attention to the incarnation itself and less emphasis on the crucifixion of the Lord. The un-assumed is the un-healed, but is it not precisely in the broken body and shed blood that we are made whole? Thus, even in a Christocentric soteriology, or maybe precisely because of our centrality on Christ, these tensions endure.

The paradox of Christology gives us no full resolution for these tensions, except to say that the two cannot and must not be separated. The person and the work of Christ are inextricably linked together. In the confessions of the Church, we are given a language which enables us to faithfully encounter and witness to these mysteries, but not to fully comprehend or control this Personal Truth. Recognizing the inadequacy of such separations, nonetheless in order to give a coherent reflection on this great mystery, I will attempt in this very short reflection, to remain in continuity with the narrative, parabola, and our confession, which all faithfully witness to our atonement in Christ. As a result, my reflections will take its shape from the central part of the Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan Creed (381).

We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father...

Jesus Christ is of the same being as the Father, homo-ousion to Patri. The Father, Son, and Spirit are all homoousion, of the same being. The mystery of our confession points to the reality that we cannot know the Father, Son, or Spirit independent of their onto-relations with each other. Attempts to separate, grasp after, and control the being of the Holy Trinity has lead to many and various heresies and inadequate models of atonement. We participate in this confession for it is revealed gift, not something we constructed within our own human ingenuity. When we understand the redemptive work of God using Irenaeus’ model of the two hands of God, then we recognize that the economic and immanent Trinity are identical, the way that God is toward us in revelation and redemption is the way that God is in God’s inner relational being. It is our confession, then, that God is reconciling the entire world to Himself in Christ by the Spirit. In this model of God’s being it is impossible to imagine the Father as a vindictive power-monger who simply pours out His violent anger onto the loving Son; instead, it is the Father, Son, and Spirit working together to redeem and recreate us, drawing us back into the oikonomia of love, which is the life of God. Moreover, this is not of our own doing, it is the gift of God, so that no one should boast.

by whom all things were made; who for us and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man...

The Word became flesh! In this confession we recognize that this first century Jew was and is God. He graciously became incarnate for us. This is where the theological language in the East has flourished. Jesus, as God, came and assumed our broken and fallen humanity so that He might heal us. God became by grace what we are by nature so that by His activity and being for us we might be transformed into the imago Dei. The One by whom all things were made assumed our humanity and by doing so He forever bound Himself to creation. In this act, He ministered the things of God to us.

and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; and suffered and was buried; and the third day rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; and shall come again, with glory, to judge both the living and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

We do not simply confess the Inhomination of the Word, the centre of our confession is the cross and resurrection. Redemption is not the result of the Incarnation, but this One as the representative for all humanity became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. He not only ministered the things of God to humanity, but also ministered the things of humanity to God. Jesus is not only God incarnate, but is also the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Through His obedience He offers up the perfect sacrifice to God on behalf of all creation. This language of our atonement is beautifully illustrated in Charles Wesley’s hymn, ‘Arise My Soul Arise’:

Arise, my soul, arise; Shake off thy guilty fears.
The bleeding Sacrifice in my behalf appears.
Before the throne my Surety stands;
Before the throne my Surety stands;
my name is written on His hands.

He ever lives above For me to intercede;
His all redeeming love, His precious blood to plead.
His blood atoned for all our race,
His blood atoned for all our race,
And sprinkles now the throne of grace.

Five bleeding wounds He bears, Received on Calvary;
They pour effectual prayers, They strongly plead for me.
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry;
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry;
“Nor let that ransomed sinner die.”

The Father hears Him pray, His dear Anointed One;
He cannot turn away The presence of His Son.
His Spirit answers to the blood,
His Spirit answers to the blood,
And tells me I am born of God.

My God is reconciled; His pard’nign voice I hear.
He owns me for His child; I can no longer fear.
With confidence I now draw nigh,
With confidence I now draw nigh,
And, “Father, Abba, Father,” cry.

The surety of our atonement is in the life, death, and resurrection of the Mediator and in His continuing Priestly intercession for us. The sin of humanity has been to grasp after equality with God, yet this One who was of the same being as God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped after, but instead He emptied Himself of all but love and became obedient unto death. In this we see that the actual image of God is one of poured out love. We are now reconciled to God and called His children because of the self-emptying love of God in Christ. It is through the parabolic movement of God in the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ that we are united back to God. We, then, are caught up in this parabola of self-giving love by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the redemptive community of faith. ‘Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again,’ and those who have died with Him in the waters of baptism, who are nourished by His body and blood through the Spirit, will be raised with Him to new life in the house of God. Hallelujah!